Jenin ( ; , ) is a city in the West Bank, Palestine, and is the capital of the Jenin Governorate. It is a hub for the surrounding towns. Jenin came under Israeli occupation in 1967, and was put under the administration of the Palestinian National Authority as Area A of the West Bank, a Palestinian enclave, in 1995.
The city had a population of approximately 50,000 people in 2017, whilst the Jenin refugee camp had a population of about 10,000, housing families of Palestinians who fled or were expelled from their homes during the 1948 Palestine War.2007 Locality Population Statistics . Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics The camp has since become a stronghold of Palestinian militants, being the location of several incidents relating to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.
Etymology Jenin has been identified as the place "Gina" or "Ginah" mentioned in the Amarna letters from the 14th century BCE, as a town in Canaan. Jenin is commonly identified with the later biblical city of Ein-Ganim,"The name of Jenin city is repeated in several sources, including the Bible, and was called by Ein Ganim"Ishtori Haparchi, Kaftor wa-Ferach, vol. 2, (3rd edition, published by ed. Avraham Yosef Havatzelet), chapter 11, Jerusalem 2007, p. 65 (note 168) (Hebrew) from , meaning "the spring of gardens" or "the spring of Ganim", probably referring to the many springs located nearby. The present-day Arabic name is believed to preserve the city's ancient name.
Jenin is identified with a number of important towns mentioned in ancient sources. Throughout history, it was referred to as "Ein Ganim", "Beth Hagan", "Ginah", and "Ginae", along other names.
History Tell Jenin is believed to constitute the original settlement core of the city.Kohl et al. (2007), p. 339. In the early 20th century, the tell was occupied by a modern cemetery and a threshing floor, and today it is located at the center of Jenin's business district.
The tell is also known as Tell el-Nawar, Nawar being an Arabic word for a number of nomadic peoples, especially the Dom people, Middle Eastern relatives of the Romani people (gypsies). This name reflects the pre-1948 presence of seasonal nomadic encampments at the site.
Neolithic and Chalcolithic The earliest settlement at the tell (archaeological mound) dates to the late Neolithic and the early Chalcolithic.
Stratum II (Neolithic-Chalcolithic).Salem, H.J. (2006) Early Bronze Age settlement system and village life in the Jenin Region/ Palestine : a study of Tell Jenin stratigraphy and pottery traditions (Doctoral Thesis).
Early Bronze Age Early Bronze I The unfortified settlement continued from the Late Chalcolithic into Early Bronze I.Salem, H.J. (2006) Early Bronze Age settlement system and village life in the Jenin Region/ Palestine : a study of Tell Jenin stratigraphy and pottery traditions (Doctoral Thesis).
Stratum III (Late Chalcolithic-EB IA; Phases 1-3). Organic tempered pottery. Stratum IV (EB IB, c. 3300/3250-3000 BCE; Phases 1-4) apsidal house with curvilinear architecture. When abandoned people moved to more fortified sites Karem Jenin and Khirbet Bal'ame in EB II.
Late Bronze Age Late Bronze II
Jenin has been identified as the place Gina or Ginah mentioned in the Amarna letters from the 14th century BCE. At the time, it was a vassal state of the New Kingdom of Egypt. The people of Gina managed to kill the warlord Labaya during the reign of Pharaoh Akhenaten.
Iron Age
Jenin is identical to Ein-Ganim, which the Hebrew Bible describes as a Levite city belonging to the Israelite tribe of Issachar. It has also been associated with Beth-Haggan, mentioned in 2 Kings in connection with Ahaziah's flight from Jehu, before he is wounded at Ibleam and later dies in Megiddo. The Book of Judith renders its name as Gini.
Roman and Byzantine periods Josephus, a Roman-Jewish historian of the 1st-century CE, mentions Ginae as being in the great plain, on the northern border of Samaria. During the Roman period, Ginae was settled exclusively by Samaritans. The people of Galilee were disposed to pass through their city during the annual pilgrimages to Jerusalem.Josephus, Antiquities XX.VI.1 In 51 CE, a Galilean Jew was killed in Ginae by hostile Samaritans while en route to Jerusalem to celebrate Sukkot. With Roman procurator Cumanus failing to respond, Jewish Zealots led by Elazar the Son of Deinaeus (Ben Dinai) sought vengeance, and several Samaritan villages in Aqrabatene were destroyed.Josephus, the Jewish War, II.232-236; Antiquities XX:118-122
Biblical commentator F. W. Farrar raised the possibility that this Samaritan village, "the first village at which [a traveler taking the road from Galilee to Judea over Mount Tabor] would arrive", was the one which rejected the disciples of Jesus in Luke's Gospel at the point where Jesus and his followers begin his journey towards Jerusalem.Farrar, F. W., Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges on Luke 9, accessed 11 June 2018
Ceramics dating from the Byzantine period have been found here.Dauphin, 1998, p. 750 There is no mention of Jenin in the reports of the Muslim conquest of the Levant from the Byzantines, which, according to the historian Moshe Sharon, "is not surprising, since it was a small place of minor importance".Sharon (2017), p. 172.
Crusader, Ayyubid and Mamluk periods Jenin came under Crusader rule in 1103. The Crusaders called it Le Grand Gerin (Latin: Garinum or Gallina Major), to distinguish it from the town of Zir'in, which they called Le Petit Gerin. Under the Crusaders it was a small seigniory, forming part of the Principality of Galilee or the Kingdom of Jerusalem.
Shortly before the Battle of Hattin in 1187, Jenin was captured by the Ayyubid sultan Saladin, who destroyed the nearby fort, Castellum Beleismum. In the 1220s, the geographer Yaqut al-Hamawi described Jenin as "a small and beautiful town, lying between Nabulus and Beisan, in the Jordan Province. There is much water, and many springs are found here, and often have I visited it."Cited in le Strange (1890), p. 464 In 1229, a peace was concluded between Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor and Sultan al-Kamil, during the Sixth Crusade, whereby the city was given to the Crusaders, but Sultan as-Salih Ayyub was able to control it permanently in 1244 after the Battle of La Forbie.
In 1255, it was agreed between the Ayyubid sultan in Syria, an-Nasir Yusuf, and the first Mamluk sultan in Egypt, Izz al-Din Aybak, to give the latter all of the lands lying west of the Jordan River, and thus Jenin entered into the possession of the Mamluks. It was one of eleven subdistricts of Mamlakat Safad (Province of Safed).Sharon (2017), p. 174. In the late 13th century, Mamluk emirs (commanders) stationed at Jenin were ordered by Sultan Qalawun () "to ride every day with their troops before the fortress of 'Akka, so as to protect the coast and the merchants."Ayalon and Sharon, 1986, p. 168. As one of the stations of the Mamluk barid (postal route) between the Mamluk capital Cairo and Damascus, it was one of the towns where fires were lit to warn of a Mongol attack. The geographer al-Dimashqi mentioned Jenin around 1300.Cited in le Strange, 1890, p. 41 From the time of Qalawun's son, Sultan an-Nasir Muhammad (), it was a station on the route where ice was transported to Cairo for the sultans' drink houses. The Mamluk historian al-Qalqashandi (d. 1418) described Jenin as "an ancient spacious town which is riding on a shoulder of a nice valley in which there is a river of flowing water" north of Qaqun "on the top end of Marj Bani Amer [Jezreel Valley]". He also noted that it contained the mausoleum of Dihyah al-Kalbi, a companion of the Islamic prophet Muhammad.
Ottoman period
The Ottomans conquered Mamluk Syria in 1516. Jenin became the administrative center of a nahiya (subdistrict) of the Lajjun Sanjak (Lajjun District). The sanjak was officially called the Iqta (Fief) of Turabay until 1559 when it became officially known as the Lajjun Sanjak.Rhode 1979, p. 24. The Turabay dynasty was the ruling house of the Bedouin Banu Haritha tribe, whose members held the governorship of Lajjun from the start of Ottoman rule through 1677.Sharon 2017, pp. 176–177.
The tax registers from 1548 to 1549 report that Jenin had a population of eight households, all Muslim. They paid a fixed tax rate of 25% on agricultural products, including wheat, barley, summer crops, goats and beehives, in addition to occasional revenues; a total of 2,000 akçe. All of the revenue went to a waqf (religious endowment) in the name of the Mamluk sultan Qansuh al-Ghuri (). Turabay rule was occasionally interrupted, including in 1564, when a certain Kemal Bey was appointed sanjak-bey (district governor) by the Ottomans.Abu-Husayn 1985, p. 188. On 15 October 1564 Kemal Bey requested from the beylerbey (provincial governor) of Damascus that the stone caravanserai of Jenin be repaired, garrisoned and serve as the chief headquarters of the Lajjun sanjak-bey in order for Lajjun to prosper and for the road connecting Damascus to Jerusalem and Egypt to become secure. The official response was that the caravanserai be turned into a fortress; the fortress became ruined at some later point and 19th-century residents of Jenin used to claim that certain large rocks strewn in the village were the remnants of the 16th-century fortress.Sharon 2017, p. 173.
The Turabays, who remained nomads in the plain between Mount Carmel and Caesarea, made Jenin the administrative headquarters of Lajjun and used the town's Izz al-Din Cemetery to bury their dead.Sharon 2017, p. 177. A large, domed mausoleum was built for the grave of one of the chiefs and sanjak-beys of the family, Turabay ibn Ali (d. 1601). Known as Qubbat al-Amir Turabay (Dome of the Emir Turabay), it was described in a 1941 report as a ruined structure, and Sharon, writing in 2017, notes that it "does not exist anymore".Sharon (2017), p. 178. No other graves of the Turabays in Jenin had survived into the 20th century. During the conflict between Fakhr al-Din of the Ma'n dynasty, who governed the sanjaks of Sidon-Beirut and Safed, and the Turabays, in 1623, Fakhr al-Din captured Jenin and stationed his men there. In 1624 the most prominent Turabay chief and sanjak-bey of Lajjun, Ahmad ibn Turabay, drove out the Ma'nid troops from Jenin and established his personal residence in the town.Abu-Husayn 1985, pp. 195–196.
In the mid-18th century, Jenin was designated the administrative capital of the combined districts of Lajjun and Ajlun.Doumani, 1995, p. 39. There are indications that the area comprising Jenin and Nablus remained functionally autonomous under Ottoman rule and that the empire struggled to collect taxes there. During the Napoleonic Campaign in Egypt which extended into Syria and Palestine in 1799, a local official from Jenin wrote a poem enumerating and calling upon local Arab leaders to resist Bonaparte, without mentioning the Sultan or the need to protect the Ottoman Empire.